May Their Practice rooms be filled with 1098's

[Newton Hunt]

Ron is right on.

These pianos do render too well.  If you keep your hammer as
close to 10:00 as you can keep it the better you can control
the flag poling because the pull of the hammer is counter
balanced by the pull of the string.  The problem is that Ron
is too short to reach the hammer at that position.

One hammer that does work, and exceptionally well, is an
impact hammer.  It turns the pin instead of flexing it and
they are so easy to tune that way that you wonder why you
didn't do this a long time ago.  Not perfect but what a
difference.  You do need to hold the hammer so as to take
the weight of the hammer off the pin.  

They are spiteful pianos to tune and so is Steinway for not
making changes to accomodate those who service the damned
things.  Just my opinion mind you but if I am the one to
tune it I will not recommend a piano that tortures me.  They
make them to accommodate THEIR values which means butkus
after they leave the factory.

		Newton

Ron Nossaman wrote:
> 
> >    OK, in my experience, as you're trying to bring a string up to pitch, it
> >doesn't seem to want to go, in spite of the obvious movement of the pin in
> >the block. Then,,,,,zoom! the string finally renders,,,,,,,right past where
> >you wished it would go. I have often wondered if the pressure bar isn't too
> >low or something.  Anybody care to give their imput? Believe me, I'd like
> >nothing more than to be able to easily tune these things, but after tuning
> >three or four in practice rooms, I'm done for the day. As opposed to being
> >able to tune twice as many Yamaha's or Kawai's.
> 
> I haven't had any to deal with on a regular basis until recently, so I'm
> anything but an authoritative opinion, but it seems to me it's the other
> way. The strings seem to me to render too easily, at least on the new ones.
> Hammer position and technique do make a tremendous difference for me. I
> found that pulling from anything past about 1:00 o'clock on those terribly
> tight pins sprung the pin down enough that, even though I was taking up
> string, the pitch stayed nearly the same or even dropped some. Then, when I
> let up on the hammer, the pin sprung back up and pulled the string sharp.
> Pushing BACK on the hammer somewhat as I turned the pin helped too, with
> the hammer at 12:00. The toughest part for me is finding the equilibrium
> point where the string tension balances the back torque and flagpole pull
> of the pin so the note will stay where I put it. Just pulling the tip off
> of the pin is too often enough to disturb the tuning. I have the best luck
> at the 11-12 o'clock position, intentionally flagpoling the pin back and
> forth after turning it to position, to determine where the equilibrium
> point is, then rotating the pin to center it. I do something very similar
> with any other tuning, as I expect you all do, but I have to pay more
> attention and spend more time with these. They do sound pretty good when
> you finally get them tuned, but it does seem like unnecessary abuse to get
> that done.
> 
> My take,
> 
> Ron N